3 years of marital bliss

april 9, 2006

boy and girl start dating

curtis and i first met in january of '06. we usually just ran into each other once in a while when i would go over to curtis' apartment with his cousin. neither of us were looking for a relationship and i never said more than 10 words to him but somehow we started spending more time together, ended up dating, and became inseparable.

november 9, 2006
boy and girl get engaged

this picture was actually taken about 30 minutes before curtis asked me to marry him. it was our 7 month anniversary and i knew curtis had planned a date but had no idea what i was in for. we went up to the "c" on cedar mountain to watch the sunset. i said i was cold and started walking back to the car. curtis kept pushing me back saying to wait just a little longer. then he pulled out the ring. obviously i said yes! after a nice dinner at rusty's we went back to town to show off my ring :)

march 9, 2007

boy and girl get married


if you haven't already noticed, 9 is my lucky number. curtis and i started dating on the 9th, engaged on the 9th, and married on the 9th. we chose the manti temple because that was where i was sealed to my mom and step dad when i was 3 years old. after we got dressed, curtis and i were escorted to the celestial room to wait for our sealing room to be ready. this was probably my most favorite part of that whole day. for those of you who haven't been to the manti temple, i have one word for you: gorgeous! now combine that beauty with the spirit of the temple and your to-be spouse sitting next to you. wow. best feeling ever.

april 13, 2009
boy and girl have their first baby

what an amazing day! 8 days past my due date, we went to the hospital at 2 a.m. to get induced. mason was born at 6:23 p.m. that same day. when i first held him, i cried and cried. you seriously could never describe giving birth unless you have actually experienced it. it is so exhausting but when you hold that baby in your arms, you forget about everything that you just went through for the last 15 hours. we absolutely love our sweet boy. he has such a great personality, the most gorgeous eyes i have ever seen, and the cutest toothy grin :) i love to get down and crawl around with him, read him stories, and sing him songs. we can't even wait to add more kids to the family!

march 9, 2010
this is us now. momma, dadda, and mase boy. we are loving life and getting by one day at a time. we laugh together, cry together, occasionally drive each other crazy and most importantly love each other to death.

if you ever ask me how i knew curtis was the one, i honestly couldn't give you a straight answer. i just knew. he was the fist person i ever loved, my best friend, and the first boy who gave me a dozen roses :) now i can tell you that i know it was right because i never, ever questioned my decision. i never got cold feet or thought that i was making a mistake. to this day i don't regret my choice.

"next door there's an old man who lived to his nineties
and one day passed away in his sleep
and his wife, she stayed for a couple of days
and passed away
i'm sorry i know that's a strange way to tell you that i know we belong
that i know
that i am
i am
i am
the luckiest"
(the luckiest by ben folds)

happy anniversary curtis.
i love you.

lately

wow. i have been neglecting this blog. here is what has been happening lately.

sweet boy is almost a year old. it makes me want to cry. he is getting so smart and developing so fast that i'm afraid to even blink. he finally started crawling a couple months ago and although he does get around, we haven't had too many problems with him getting into things he shouldn't be. no walking by himself yet but he basically scales every piece of furniture in our house. he reminds me of spider man :) to name a few of his new tricks: mason waves goodbye, claps, shakes his head no, does the itsy bitsy spider actions, and says oh! with the appropriate facial expressions. even when i feel as though i could strangle him, he smiles and all worries are forgotten. once mason started crawling, he found the shelf on the bookcase specially set aside for him. i never even bother to put the books away because he will instantly crawl over and pull them all off again. he spends more time in this spot than anywhere else in the house.

curtis has been working hard as usual. his classes are super hard this semester and he basically lives at the school whenever he isn't working. if all goes as planned he should be getting his bachelors degree next year. wahoo! after that it's applying for graduate school which will mean another 1 1/2 years of school before he gets his masters degree. it seems so close yet so far away. i would just like to know where in the world we are going to end up living! we really hope we stay in cedar but the chances of that happening are slim to none. oh well. as long as he gets a job we will be happy as a clam! (i hope so anyway)

as for me, i'm hanging in there. work is going well and it's encouraging to see my student progressing as well as he is. kindergarten is by far my favorite age group and i always come home with great stories to tell curtis. this time of the year it tough as the temperature increases and the number of holidays decrease but i keep my eye on may and think of summer...mmm. warm sunshine, no work, bbq's, and lake trips. i can't wait! mason and i seem to be getting along better :) he is sleeping better, eating better, and we are enjoying our time together instead of both of us being tired and grouchy.

that is the report for now.

hopefully more to come soon.

i hope they call me on a mission

my freaking awesome brother just got his mission call and i think i'm more excited than he is! :) it came in the mail on thursday but glenn was gone snowboarding all day and working that night so we were finally able to get the whole family together friday morning (and i'm sure my youngest brother didn't mind missing a couple hours of school to do so :).

i told him he was going to canada but i was wrong....

try mexico tuxtla gutierrez instead!!

we had fun trying to figure out how to pronounce it and thanks to my 2 years of spanish in high school, we got pretty close! we immediately jumped on the computer and started doing some research. we learned tuxtla is really close to the border of guatemala and it looks absolutely gorgeous! i can't believe my little brother is leaving for two years! i am so excited for him and know he will do great!

congratulations glenn!!

happy birthday talia!

mason's one and only cousin (until march anyway) just had her first birthday on the 27th. curtis' grandparents came up to cedar and we had a little party at our house. carolyn and kyle cooked a great dinner which was followed by cake and ice cream and the opening of presents. it was a great opportunity to try out our new camera and i got a little camera happy :)

holly jolly christmas

christmas is my very favorite time of year! i love the feeling in the air, i love decorating, i love getting a tree, i love buying presents, i love it all!! the only down side is i forget how crazy it all can get! this year curtis' whole family came to stay at our house for 2 weeks....we went from a 3 person household to a 9 person household. luckily we have a big house! despite 2 screaming babies, a yapping dog, and lots of stress, we had a good time!

curtis' family has a tradition of making gingerbread houses. so the afternoon of christmas eve, we whipped up the frosting, pulled out the candy, and started working away. although i was not impressed with my creative juices this year, things didn't turn out too bad.

that evening we headed over to my parents house to spend the night with my family. my family has the tradition of drawing names then opening those presents on christmas eve so we did that and also enjoyed playing the old nintendo 64 and watching "bedtime stories."

these pictures are of mason's very first present! he didn't really get what to do but it was still fun! it was a little phone that my brother got for him and mason loves playing with it.

christmas morning we woke up and opened more presents! mason still didn't get the hang of it so i basically opened all his presents for him :) after we finished the unwrapping and ate some breakfast, we went back to our house to join curtis' family.

my brother-in-law gave us this beautiful picture of the manti temple for christmas! i love it!

later that day we went to mesquite to visit curtis' grandparents.

curtis was happy with the presents that i got him (at least it seemed like it anyway :) and i was extremely pleased with my presents (including our freaking awesome new camera and a $400 designer purse! my in-laws got it for only $100 :) mason is having a hard time becoming interested in his presents....he is so obsessed with standing that he will only play with them if he can do it while standing up. we got him a little toy to support his improving walking skills but taking steps is still so new to him that it is a little scary.

christmas is always an important time for us but this christmas was especially important for both sides of our family. my brother will be leaving on his mission this spring and curtis' youngest brother will be going to afghanistan in march. we are so grateful that we got to spend time with both of them before they leave!